Tag Archives: Eckhart Tolle

Neville Goddard: New Thought pioneer

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Neville Goddard, New Thought pioneer and teacherOnly very recently I have appreciated and enjoyed checking out the teachings of Neville Goddard, which are essentially a poetic conveyance of New Thought teachings: the deep spiritual message which many believe to be the properly understood purpose and interpretation of the Bible as well as other religions. (The adjective spiritual is crucial in the previous sentence, since Neville’s message was certainly not religious in any traditional sense of the word.)

The message of Neville is a New Thought paradigm which just so happens to use Christian terminology and references. This is merely the author’s preference and does not indicate traditional Christian views or beliefs in any sense, as Neville was a New Thought pioneer and not a Christian author or teacher. NOTE: As most are not familiar with New Thought spirituality, the spiritual movement is described in more detail below, using the words of William James.

Neville’s central themes remind me quite a bit of another excellent spiritual teacher and New Thought pioneer who also preferred to stick with Christian terminology: Emmet Fox. The New Thought teachings of Neville and Fox are in stark contrast to old-school Protestant Christianity, often characterized by traditional dogma, literal interpretation of the Bible, centered in churches split up into denominations, the belief in a literal heaven and hell, a real devil or Satan, Noah’s ark, a global flood, etc.

For the sake of comparison — and a quick understanding for anyone reading this — here’s another quick and simple illustration to compare the two worldviews: New Thought is to Fundamentalist Christianity as the Unity Church[1] is to the Southern Baptist church.

books by Neville Goddard, New Thought pioneer and teacherIn other words, New Thought spirituality — including the teachings of Neville Goddard and Emmet Fox — has little to do with Christianity as it is commonly understood, and is completely unrelated to today’s far right Christian fundamentalism. (In the case of doubt, a quick bit of brief web research into the New Thought movement will show this to be true.)

One difference in these two worldviews is that, in New Thought, true divine power is seen to be within us; it does not come from any external being or source (as is the traditional religious viewpoint of God, sitting on his throne way up above the sky in heaven). As Neville Goddard likes to say, God is the imagination of man.

Eckhart Tolle is one of the most famous and influential New Thought teachers, especially after a big boost from Oprah — but uses virtually no religious terminology. Wayne Dyer is one of my favorite New Thought teachers; he frequently references Christian, Taoist, Buddhist, Hindu, and many other religious and spiritual traditions.

There are quite a few other New Thought writers and teachers.

New Thought holds no religion to be fundamentally true to the exclusion of any other religion(s). New Thought properly implies, if not outright conveys, the fact that…

The practical aspects of all religions are in amazing harmony: the source of an amazing, unifying, reassuring bliss!

[ Indeed, spiritual truth is almost TOO simple to grasp!! ]

Wayne Dyer on the PBS set of Wishes FulfilledIt doesn’t take much reading to see that perhaps Neville’s favorite hook is the word imagination! To Neville, human imagination is God; God is literally the imagination of man. Neville stresses that one of the main reasons mankind has been so slow to catch on to the real message of Christianity — the true spiritual (not religious) message — is that man has wrongly interpreted Bible stories, including the Immaculate Conception and the virgin birth, as history and biography while failing to understand the metaphorical meanings of these teaching stories.

Wayne Dyer on the PBS set of Wishes FulfilledOne of the beautiful aspects of New Thought is that the terminology of any major religion can be used to describe it — without changing the inherent meaning! Such a concept may seem impossible until one truly sees and accepts that the practical aspects of world religion and spiritual practices are in harmony. This is among the highest of realizations.

I first heard of Neville Goddard when his The Power of Imagination book was praised by Wayne Dyer in his PBS talk Wishes Fulfilled.

William James describes New Thought

Those of us with significant twelve-step experience and understanding have probably read The Varieties of Religious Experience — the fantastic book by William James, which described the New Thought movement as follows:

… for the sake of having a brief designation, I will give the title of the "Mind-cure movement." There are various sects of this "New Thought," to use another of the names by which it calls itself; but their agreements are so profound that their differences may be neglected for my present purpose, and I will treat the movement, without apology, as if it were a simple thing.

It is an optimistic scheme of life, with both a speculative and a practical side. In its gradual development during the last quarter of a century, it has taken up into itself a number of contributory elements, and it must now be reckoned with as a genuine religious power. It has reached the stage, for example, when the demand for its literature is great enough for insincere stuff, mechanically produced for the market, to be to a certain extent supplied by publishers – a phenomenon never observed, I imagine, until a religion has got well past its earliest insecure beginnings.

One of the doctrinal sources of Mind-cure is the four Gospels; another is Emersonianism or New England transcendentalism; another is Berkeleyan idealism; another is spiritism[2], with its messages of "law" and "progress" and "development"; another the optimistic popular science evolutionism of which I have recently spoken; and, finally, Hinduism has contributed a strain. But the most characteristic feature of the mind-cure movement is an inspiration much more direct. The leaders in this faith have had an intuitive belief in the all-saving power of healthy-minded attitudes as such, in the conquering efficacy of courage, hope, and trust, and a correlative contempt for doubt, fear, worry, and all nervously precautionary states of mind. Their belief has in a general way been corroborated by the practical experience of their disciples; and this experience forms to-day a mass imposing in amount. (Source: New Thought – Wikipedia)

NOTES

[1] Unity Church

The Unity Church is not the same as the Unitarian Church, even though they sound so much alike and are often confused; however, in comparison to most modern Christian denominations (e.g., Southern Baptist, Church of Christ, Presbyterian, Methodist, etc.), Unity and Unitarian are certainly much more alike than different with regard to their tolerance of diverse beliefs, their overall encouragement and support of religious pluralism, etc.

Unity Church basics:

Spiritual seekers often say that finding Unity is like coming home. Unity is an open-minded, accepting spiritual community that honors all paths to God and helps people discover and live their spiritual potential and purpose.

A positive alternative to negative religion, Unity seeks to apply the teachings of Jesus as well as other spiritual masters. Unity affirms the power of prayer and helps people experience a stronger connection with God every day. (Source: About Unity: Practical Teachings

[2] Spiritism

Actually, the most basic belief regarding spiritualism is that humans possess an eternal spirit which goes on after our physical demise. Despite being a common, standard belief in most religions and spiritual paths, it nevertheless falls into the category of the supernatural; therefore, it is not a belief on which this blogger makes any judgment, either way. Like every other human, I simply do not know the answers to supernatural questions and I’m perfectly willing to admit as much.

You won’t see spiritism (e.g., the belief that mediums can communicate with spirits, et al) being peddled here. If the ability of mediums to talk to the dead happens to be a part of modern New Thought beliefs, then it is a part to which I do not subscribe.

And that’s perfectly fine. Remaining true to the Jeffersonian spirit of deciding upon one’s spiritual/religious beliefs for oneself, I do not automatically accept any teachings — even the teachings of New Thought.

I have yet to meet an organized religion or system of belief with which I agree completely.

Notable quotes from Neville Goddard from Awakened Imagination

Coming later…

Resources: Neville Goddard

  1. Real Neville
  2. Neville Goddard audio downloads for sale – Large collection
  3. Neville Lecture Hall: Preserving Neville’s Words and Wisdom — Sometimes we look for answers on the outside, not knowing the answers all lie within our imagination’s grasp now. Many look for power on the outside when The Power resides within themselves – always. Take a risk on yourself and explore the inside of You through Neville Goddard’s lectures in written and audio formats now…
  4. God’s Promise To Man – Neville Goddard 2-08-1963
  5. Neville Goddard books online – Steve Palina
  6. Awakened Imagination, by Neville Goddard – Archive.org
  7. As you have heard, this morning’s subject is “Awakened Imagination” – RealNeville.com

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It is the underlying message that’s of critical importance.

Miguel Ruiz, for example — though not officially characterized as a New Thought teacher — promotes views that mesh rather nicely with New Thought. The terminology favored by Ruiz comes from the Toltec wisdom tradition of Central America, yet the message is basically the same.

It is a fundamentally critical — or critically fundamental :) — point that seems to be somehow missed by Bible literalists, even today.

If you miss it now, perhaps you will get it later.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Are the teachings of Wayne Dyer blasphemous?

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Conservative religious views toward New Thought, Perennial Philosophy

view of fictional solar system spaceAre the teachings of Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, and Eckhart Tolle blasphemous?

Truly — in reality, that is — no, New Thought teachings are certainly not blasphemous.

However, rational thinkers must remind themselves that perspective is everything.

When I reviewed today’s list of Google (and other major search engine) searches that led viewers to this Search for Truth blog, one of the search phrases caught my eye:

Is Wayne Dyer’s teaching blasphemous?

structure - indoorsThe opinions resulting from such a loaded question are largely predictable. Like virtually everything else in life, the answer depends upon one’s perspective.

New Thought: A Practical Spirituality, by Mary Manin Morrisse

If your point of view comes from religious fundamentalism, then the "YES" answer is obvious (and thus the loaded nature of this particular question). Are you a religious fundamentalist? Do most religious fundamentalists even realize that they’re fundamentalists? Those unsure or curious can check out this quick and easy test for religious fundamentalism.

church steepleThose who choose to interpret the Bible literally – Hard Right Christian fundamentalists, Biblical literalists, Biblical inerrantists, etc. (the word Christian alone is far too general; thankfully, many Christians reject fundamentalism) – have little choice but to consider spiritual views like New Thought or the Perennial Philosophy as blasphemy. Their reasoning is ultra-simple:

Any worldview that fails to interpret the Bible like we do is blasphemous, by default.

Of course, those "born again" (in the sense of traditional Christian fundamentalism) would not describe their answer that way. Their explanations would probably include some type of emotional pleading, another term for appeal to emotion — a common logical fallacy used to support all kinds of religious beliefs.

Those raised in fundamentalist Christianity have been taught for all or most of their lives that Jesus is the literal, physical son of God who died to save mankind from itself. Saving mankind was necessary because — thanks to the actions of Adam and Eve — man is imperfect, inadequate, and sinful by nature. Believing so, Christian fundamentalists honor that sacrifice in a specific, prescribed manner and adopt a certain set of religious beliefs in order to be saved, or to live with God and Jesus in heaven — thus avoiding eternal torture in hell.

airplane at sunsetTrue believers might wonder aloud how anyone could possibly ignore such an amazing gift of love. "Knowing these things, how could anyone do anything else? I mean, don’t you feel it?"

And there’s the appeal to emotion: Answers that tug at the heartstrings. Emotional appeals usually seem more meaningful and are thus more likely to cause listeners to pause and reflect. The appeal to emotion is a logical fallacy because, instead of providing any legitimate evidence to answer the question, the answer simply generates an emotional response. This is the substantial power of emotional pleading, or the appeal to emotion — used so frequently because it works so often, especially when listeners are not prone to critical thought or reasonable skepticism.

structureMany thousands of other world religions and spiritual traditions throughout history – including Wayne Dyer’s worldview, which is sometimes called New Thought – do not include one iota of appreciation or respect for the literal killing and sacrifice of God’s son. And that glaring omission of Christ makes all of those (non-Christian fundamentalist) views inherently blasphemous. For true believers within fundamentalism, there’s simply no other way to view opposing or alternative belief systems.

NOTE: This post remains unfinished but does contain some completed points… As always, thanks for visiting.

Conclusion: Perspective is everything!

earth from space, clouds and weatherAs philosophers and scientists might say, there is no such thing as an objectively true answer to this kind of loaded question. There could not possibly be a sole answer that would be objectively accurate from all perspectives.

That is, one’s answer depends entirely upon one’s perspective. Perspective is everything.

To paraphrase Stephen Covey, author of the fantastic book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,

The way one looks at the problem is itself the real problem.

If we were in a Muslim majority country, then most uniquely Christian fundamentalist beliefs would be considered blasphemous – including the belief that Jesus was the literal, physical son of God – or even the belief that Jesus was in any sense divine.

In this sense, perspective really is everything!

To the true believers of religious fundamentalism

When you set aside the time and determination to conduct some serious research, the lay of the land will become clearer. Please carefully consider and contemplate the precise underlying reasons why you reject all other gods (apart from God, or the deities described in the scripture of your own revealed religion).

For example, what are the specific reasons you do not believe in Allah, as described in the Koran?

With this new knowledge, you will understand why others reject your literal interpretations and beliefs, your version of God, etc.

Related subject: Proverbs & perspective

The massive effect of perspective – whether based on the point of view of the individual, one’s culture, or religion – creates a sort of rarity for objective truth. After one carefully contemplates and then better comprehends the principle of perspective, one realizes that most proverbs, or statements of conventional wisdom, are not true from all perspectives. In other words, proverbs are not objectively true.

Proverbs vs. perspective: Patience & proactivity

Patience:
All good things come to he who waits.

Proactiveness:
The early bird gets the worm.

Resources: Are the New Thought teachings of Wayne Dyer and others blasphemous?

Religious fundamentalists criticize Wayne Dyer’s beliefs

Other resources related to this post

Conventional wisdom and perspective

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In other words, it’s all about perspective; different strokes for different folks, as they say. Different people see things in different light.

This post was started on Friday, March 16, 2012.

Eckhart Tolle: Unhappiness

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church buildingWhen we read that over 70% of Americans are unhappy with the direction their country is going, we may think that this unhappiness arises from the pain body. Much of it does, but not all unhappiness comes from the pain body. A substantial amount of your unhappiness comes from the lack of Presence — living outside of the Present Moment, when you are not in alignment with the Now.

There is such a thing as old emotional pain living inside you. It is an accumulation of painful life experience that was not fully faced and accepted in the moment it arose. It leaves behind an energy form of emotional pain. It comes together with other energy forms from other instances, and so after some years you have a “painbody,” an energy entity consisting of old emotion.

It lives in human beings, and it is the emotional aspect of egoic consciousness. When the ego is amplified by the emotion of the painbody, the ego has enormous strength still — particularly at those times. It requires very great presence so that you can be there as the space also for your painbody, when it arises.
Source: Huffington Post – Living in Presence With Your Emotional Pain Body, by Eckhart Tolle on Amazon

There are many indicators of this misalignment. One is when your experience of unhappiness is disproportionate to your situation or circumstances. It is an overreaction to the situation or circumstance. This is one of the easiest ways to recognize your lack of presence, even though everyone around you will have seen it before you did. You don’t know you’re not being present because you have become identified with the reactivity, which blinds you to your lack of Presence, your misalignment with the Now. Your friends and family can easily see your identification when insignificant things or events cause you intense unhappiness.

Psychology tells us that these overreactions are, of course, the stimulation of old wounded feelings that are brought back to life, amplifying the structures of the ego. Remember that the pain body and ego are closely related. Because of the triggering, you hugely distort the importance of the particular event that is bringing on the intense unhappiness. When you are not present, you are continuously looking at the current situation with the eyes of your emotional past. What you are currently experiencing is not part of the situation that upsets you. Unfortunately, reactions, overreactions and all negative emotions are what the pain body receives its nourishment from.

When this is going on, you are not perceiving reality accurately. Instead, you are seeing the world through a heavily distorted story that traps your access to objective reality and makes you miserable. So the next time you believe your life is “going in the wrong direction”,
do a little inquiry to find out if your unhappiness is a movie or dream conspiracy of your pain body and ego to trap you in your own private hell. The Present Moment is always waiting to bring you back to the truth.

Thoughts on Eckhart Tolle’s teachings

I eagerly consumed the two Eckhart Tolle books The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, and later, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, and I considered both to be influential and transformative on a personal level — particularly, the latter. I have not posted many reviews on Amazon, but I made sure to leave positive comments about A New Earth; I even bestowed what I’d consider the ultimate praise for such a book when I referred to A New Earth as enlightenment in a book, even if it is a bit tongue-in-cheek (since, after all, true enlightenment cannot come from a book).

Although I got quite a bit out of The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, at the time I wrote off some of the material, believing it to be too "New Agey" for my personal tastes – including Tolle’s discussion about things like the pain body.

I am not inclined to give serious thought to "New Age-sounding" topics such as dream interpretation, crystal healing, chakras, energy fields, and so on — much less discuss such topics seriously with conservative friends. So, taking the basic advice below, I now interpret Tolle’s pain body simply as negativity. In doing so, I no longer ignore Tolle’s suggestions and teachings involving the pain body; I interpret them in a way that makes sense to me, without changing the essential meaning of the teaching. As a result, I can learn a vast array of previously unfamiliar teachings and apply them to my daily life.

This discussion is continued in the post Conservative religious attitudes toward modern spiritual teachings.

Notes

The content in the first section of this post which is not enclosed within blockquotes is quoted from Unhappiness.

Resources: Eckart Tolle on unhappiness

A brief summary of my spiritual quest

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sunsetBackground of this post:
These words were taken from a 2011 email to the director of Lipscomb University‘s relatively progressive Center for Spiritual Renewal, with whom I had recently reconnected at a Lindsley Avenue Church of Christ speaking engagement in March 2011. For some reason, I decided to give the director a brief account of why I am no longer a member of a conservative Protestant Christian congregation. C.M. never did receive my email due to a technical issue, and I did not resend it. More recently, C.M. returned to Lindsley Avenue Church (March 2012); I was in attendance as a guest of Steve Garrett, the minister — so C.M. and I talked again, this time setting a firm time and date for an April 2012 appointment!

Art, sketches
The sketches on this page are drawings or caricatures of Bible teachers at then-David Lipscomb University in the early 1980s. I hope Lipscomb readers will enjoy these, and good luck in guessing their identities…

Taking a risk: Being more open about locally controversial beliefs

Critically — personally, at least — this is the first time these "highly controversial" subjects will be discussed in detail by this writer with a prominent Nashville conservative (fundamentalist) Christian. Why have I decided to become so open about this, even to the point of risking total rejection and reprimand from someone who knows my folks? It is also very important to note that I have kept my opinions — including these writings — largely hidden from most conservative Christians — including my family, close friends of the family, Lipscomb University officials, church members, and so on.

Such secrecy about one’s religious beliefs will surely sound silly, or even ludicrous, to some readers; however, let me assure you that religious beliefs are no small thing within the local circles of Lipscomb University and community Churches of Christ. When one raised as I was, in a family of relative prominence, leaving the church is considered to be a scandal in some eyes!

It might have been much more serious, had I been vocal about my evolving religious and spiritual beliefs while my father still served as an elder in a large local Church of Christ. Technically speaking — and depending upon the degree of literal Bible interpretation by the other elders, deacons, and even the members of that particular church congregation — having an "unbelieving" son would have required his resignation from the eldership… no trivial matter.

So I kept quiet about my "different" beliefs for a decade and a half. Only recently — the last couple of years or so — have I begun to publish articles about religion and spirituality. Even then, as you may have noticed, the name of the author is Samana. (Samana is not my name!)

sketch by Stephen Frasier: Tom Holland, Bible teacher at David Lipscomb University and preacher Nashville, TN in the 1980sI have spent much of my life carefully studying religion and spirituality, their contrasts, how religion and spirituality relate to science, history, philosophy, and numerous other subjects, etc. In a sense, the seriousness and depth of my ongoing spiritual quest (largely held close to the vest) and the related experiences have been a roller-coaster ride!

To me, nothing is more important in life than the quest for spiritual truth and development; interestingly, this opinion has been one of few to successfully carry over from my early, frequent exposure to Nashville-style religious fundamentalism!

As a tween or early teen, I sensed — on a deep, personal level — that there was something missing from the legalistic, fundamentalist worldview to which everyone in my ken seemed to subscribe. I seemed to be more curious than the average young parishioner. While others seemed content to accept all the religious teachings and dogma at face value while refraining from asking the notoriously “difficult” questions that plague religion (evolution, origin and nature of evil, et al), I was not prepared to blindly follow them. I had an earnest, unrelenting desire to conduct independent, relatively objective research in order to confirm the teachings of the church, and in the process, hopefully reassure myself that what we were being taught at school and church was congruent with reality and truth.

sketch by Stephen Frasier - Bible teacher at David Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN in the 1980sI began to think then as I have come to believe now: that, although spiritual matters are certainly beyond reason and intellect, they ought not conflict with reason and intellect. In other words, I do not subscribe to fideism on any level: the belief that truth-telling tools such as logic, reason, science, philosophy, and intellect are actually enemies of religious faith! (For inerrantists who take the Bible 100% literally, there are numerous passages in the Bible that confirm, encourage, and support the employment of human reason in the process of discerning one’s religious beliefs.)

I was quite rebellious in my early college years; I believe I was the only student in my Christian Evidences class [1] to argue for the “other side.” I think I still received a B- in the class, in which we used Sproul’s Reason to Believe as the primary text. For a short time around age 18, I suppose I was leaning toward atheism. Fortunately, that did not last very long.

sketch by Stephen Frasier - Bible teacher at David Lipscomb University in Nashville, TNAround the year 2000, I decided it was time to get very serious concerning my beliefs; I decided to devote my full time and attention to the study and research of religion and spirituality, and how they relate to truth, reality, science, history, etc. I spent months doing little apart from contemplating and examining the errancy/ inerrancy debate, the "special creation" vs. macro-evolution debate, intelligent design I.D.), comparative religion, the differences and similarities between Eastern and Western religious views and philosophies, Christian mysticism, New Thought, the perennial philosophy, and much more.

Over the years, I practiced and/or adopted belief systems including fundamentalist Christianity (as I was raised to believe at David Lipscomb first grade through college and at Brentwood Hills Church of Christ), "true" or "Jeffersonian" Christianity, Deism, agnosticism, secular humanism, atheism, pantheism/ panentheism, Buddhism, and Taoism.

sketch by Stephen Frasier - Roland Pack, Bible teacher at David Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN in the 1980sI wish everyone could (or would) take the time to conduct an objective, big-picture study of these matters; I would not trade that experience for anything in life!

These evolving views and beliefs have had several side effects: some positive, some negative. Relatively speaking, my widely varying experiences seemed to bring about a great deal of perspective, appreciation, freedom, compassion, perhaps even a mild enlightenment. On the negative side, I suffered socially from my beliefs since almost everyone in my life up to that point was from the Nashville world of Christian fundamentalism. I became more distant from my immediate family, though this was probably more of my own doing than anyone else’s.

sketch by Stephen Frasier - Bible teacher at David Lipscomb University in Nashville, TNI gained a tremendous respect for those spiritual giants of all paths who encourage interfaith dialogue, tolerance, acceptance, universal spiritual principles, and syncretism: People like HHDL (His Holiness the Dalai Lama), Thomas Merton [2], Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Thich Nhat Hanh, and so many others. My heart clearly and firmly led me in the direction of openness, oneness, and spiritual unity – and away from closed-mindedness, fideism, legalism, and fundamentalism.

For many years now I’ve been writing about these experiences: the related study, research, and practice; religion and spirituality, etc. However, given my conservative heritage and environment, I’ve kept most of my writings and beliefs to myself — sharing them only with close friends and a few others. Perhaps to those who do not know me, one of the only outward signs of my faith has been the drastic reduction in my church attendance! The casual observer might posit that I either do not care about religion and spirituality, or have turned against it. Thankfully, neither could be further from the truth!

I am no longer content or satisfied to keep these things to myself; I am no longer willing to remain silent on such important matters — especially with the push of the Hard Right into modern national politics and the associated threats to pluralism, separation of church and state, the twisting of what great rational thinkers such as Thomas Jefferson really thought about religious fundamentalism, etc. (I’ll end my political references here; these potentially touchy subjects are covered in separate posts on the Search for Truth blog, as well.)

Therefore, it is with tremendous relief and some excitement that I have finally begun to publish a few articles, essays, and posts on these subjects on this Search for Truth blog and elsewhere. Goals include encouraging critical thought and deep contemplation re: spirituality and religion, spiritual unity and oneness, emphasis of unity over division, acceptance over judgment, truth over tradition, and so on. [ Mission, goals of Search for Truth, About Search for Truth... ]

Resources

Notes

[1] Christian Evidences course: A study of the evidences which support the Christian religion, dealing with such matters as the existence of God, the origin of the universe, the inspiration of the Scriptures, and the divinity of Christ.

[2] Even some of the most positively influential Christians of modern times cannot avoid being publicly condemned by radical, far-right religious fundamentalists. Apostasy Alert and its berating of Thomas Merton is a great example of religion gone haywire.

  • Biblical errancy vs. inerrancy debate
  • Special creation vs. macroevolution debate
  • comparative religion
  • Eastern and Western religious views and philosophies
  • Christian mysticism
  • Basic universal spiritual principles
  • Syncretism, New Thought, perennial philosophy
  • Aldous Huxley, Wayne Dyer, Eckhart Tolle, Neale Donald Walsch, etc.

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(I realize I must trim back the level of detail – otherwise, this email will take up too much of your time! As a writer, I tend to be verbose…)

Our beliefs compared to agnosticism

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written Tuesday, March 15, 2011
When I am asked for my own religious affiliation, I usually don’t say “agnosticism.” One reason I don’t strongly favor classifying belief systems like my own as “mere” agnosticm is that I don’t seem to fit the profile of the most apparently common connotations of the word “agnostic.” According to what I often read and hear, a few of the frequently assumed characteristics of what it means to be an agnostic include the following:

• The belief that there may or may not be a real “God” – it can’t be known
• Not really caring one way or another whether a “God” exists
• A flippant attitude about religion and spirituality
• The opinion that studying matters of religion and spirituality are a waste of time
• Considering religious and spiritual matters to be relatively unimportant

While all of the above do not necessarily mesh with “official” definitions of agnosticism, I believe they are fair characterizations of the assumptions often made by religious people about agnostics. Only the first item above applies to textbook agnostics: the belief that there may or may not be a real “God,” or that such cannot be truly known by man.

The truth is this: I care a great deal about religious and spiritual matters – and how well they may or may not reflect truth and reality. If I did not care about these things, then I wouldn’t make the time and effort to study these subjects and write about them as I do.

I should also admit that my first answer (when asked about my religious affiliation) is not Christianity, either – even though I believe I understand and adhere to originally intended message of Jesus as a moral teacher. The reason it is not: in modern America, the designation “Christian” is typically assumed to mean “Christian fundamentalist” or “Christian evangelical”- implying that I take the Bible literally and believe all other paths are not only in error, but doomed. Of course, I subscribe to no such closed-minded view.

Ongoing search for truth

What I am after is the truth. Yes, I believe it is certain that these kinds of truths cannot be known for sure by man at this time in history, given the current limitations of science. Even so, I see no reason to avoid this search for truth; for even though we cannot really know, I believe we can move toward knowing – that we can get closer to the truth.

We can consider all the evidence, options, possibilities, and belief systems and thus discover more about these things than would otherwise be determinable. Through the application of honest, objective research (that is, with the most objectivity we can possibly muster, given that we are human beings and are thus subject to bias), I believe we can get closer to the truth than those who do not spend large amounts of time and effort looking into these important matters.

Is it better to study these matters, or to ignore them and pursue other interests? I think many people suffer from a level of complacency when it comes to matters of belief and faith; however, while some people feel driven to look into the truths behind religious and spiritual matters, others do not seem to have this need. Indeed, many who have this complacency do not appear to suffer from it. I know people in both categories. I don’t know if there is a one-size-fits-all answer to that question.

MY beliefs vs. OUR beliefs

I will occasionally refer to “my belief system” in general as being “our beliefs” for one simple reason: these are not merely the beliefs of one seemingly strange, nonconformist, freethinking individual! In fact, a great many people share the views I am promoting. Many of them would be happy to tell you so. Certain others would not want the public to know what their real beliefs are, simply because they feel the need to portray the appearance of subscribing to a version of fundamentalist Christianity or evangelical Christianity for various reasons (often social ones).

It is widely accepted that the views of others should not be used as evidence that those particular beliefs are true, and we agree. The belief that what others think is evidence of truth is a common logical fallacy, or error in reasoning. Nevertheless, it is interesting and worthwhile to consider the beliefs of others.

Examples of belief systems that share a significant portion of the specific views promoted by this blog:

Examples of famous historical figures who have influenced my beliefs:

Examples of modern writers and thinkers who have influenced my beliefs:

Resources

Leaving the church

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NOTE: These comments were taken from a Facebook message I sent to a former Sunday school teacher of mine. We had been discussing getting together for coffee; however, he has not replied since I sent him this message. How unfortunate…

The whole subject of religion is of extreme interest to me despite having “left the church” ages ago. I could no longer feel satisfied or even mildly comfortable re: the church’s tendency to avoid or gloss over the difficult questions and/or provide answers that always seemed to fall short.

In fact – as an unpublished, wanna-be writer – I have more written material resulting from my studies of religion, theism arguments, apologetics, and related subject matter than any other topic. That’s saying a lot, given all my writing and blogging over the years! It will always remain my number-one topic of unending fascination – possibly due to being raised in the Church of Christ and later rejecting fundamentalist worldviews; however, the powerful desire to learn the underlying truth remains and continues to propel my spiritual seeking. I just love it, really.

Somewhere along the way I lost all passion for divisive views of the “we are right, you are wrong, and you are thus hell-bound” sort. When the tradition and dogma are stripped away, there is an amazing and beautiful congruence of virtually all major religious and spiritual teachings. I guess you could say I discarded previous notions of an anthropomorphic god in favor of a bigger, nameless one that’s basically beyond all human understanding.

Are you familiar with Wayne Dyer? He has been my favorite modern spiritual teacher for a long time now; Eckart Tolle is another. They don’t go around condemning religious fundamentalists (I fell into that finger-pointing group for a while), but rather teach a unifying, uplifting message applicable to everyone – the way I now believe it was always meant to be.